Judicial Watch: Court Hearing on Monday, March 13, in Lawsuit Demanding State Ask DOJ to Pursue Clinton Emails

(Washington DC) – Judicial Watch today announced that a hearing will be held on Monday, March 13, 2017, regarding Judicial Watch’s lawsuit that seeks to force Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take steps to “recover emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton” and other U.S. Department of State employees (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Rex Tillerson (No. 1:15-cv-00785)). The lawsuit was originally filed against then-Secretary of State John Kerry.

Date: Monday, March 13, 2017

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Location: Courtroom 19

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

333 Constitution Ave NW

Washington, DC 20001 

The hearing will focus on the next steps in light of the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that required Secretary of State John Kerry (now Secretary Rex Tillerson) to seek the help of the attorney general in recovering additional Hillary Clinton emails.

The Federal Records Act states that an agency head “shall” initiate an action through the Attorney General when he becomes aware of any unlawful removal of agency records.  The Obama State Department refused to do this.  The Trump State Department apparently intends to do the same.  This despite the recent D.C. Circuit ruling that the State Department had not proved it had done enough to recover missing emails and that an enforcement action must be sought unless “no imaginable enforcement action by the Attorney General could lead to recovery of the missing emails.”  Neither the State Department nor anyone else has ever contended that all the emails have been returned.

This will be the first hearing since Judge James E. Boasberg granted Kerry’s lawyers motion to dismiss. Judicial Watch then won on appeal and Judge Boasberg reversed the decision on December 27, 2016.

Despite the president’s campaign criticism of Hillary Clinton’s email practices and the protection of her illegal behavior by the Obama administration, the Trump State Department told Judicial Watch this week that it would continue to object to asking the Attorney General to take steps to recover Clinton’s emails.

###